Endings
by Nightwingess
Summary: A 6 part story that takes place after Before the dawn that involves the original team, the people they've become and above all sacrifice.
1. We're just kids

The hum of the machine was dizzying, making dissonant beeps resounding off the gray walls of the ship as the archer, or rather the assassin, shifted her feet, struggling to process all that had happened. The floor was soaked with seawater, the air was musty and at its center was her old friend, Kaldur'ahm, the quiet young man eerily silent in his bed.

_She didn't mean it._

Artemis whispered those words over and over to him throughout the night, all the while knowing it was a lie and not even a bold one. The M'gann they'd known was buried under the consequences of losing loved ones. The sweet girl from their youth was nothing more than tears. All that was left was the same face of their friend who had turned to revenge at the cost of someone who she'd called a big brother.

"You were our big brother." Artemis said, stepping onto the floor, walking towards him and taking his cold hand. The monitor continued to make noises but the life, the soul inside the body was gone. The figure before her was no more human than the ship that carried them; it was a vessel of cells.

Artemis pulled off her tiger mask, one she'd modeled after her mother's, and placed it on the bedside table. She took his hand into hers. Artemis recalled how the same hand had squeezed her shoulder at graduation day; the first of the Crock family to complete high school and that thought had terrified her. The expectation, the pressure, but her big brother Kal, was there to smile and usher her forward.

"Do you remember what you told me Kal, when I was two seconds away from jumping off that stage and running off to the cave?" Kaldur showed no sign of understanding, no facial twitch, no expression. The realization of his current state began to overwhelm her and she shook her head, squeezing his hand as tightly as he had squeezed her shoulder years ago. Outside there was shouting; Kaldur's father arguing his son could be salvaged. The oily sweetness of Klarion the witch boy whispered "but of course" and once again suggested a sinister plan to use Kal's body as some sort of empty shell for their personal use.

Back and forth the members of the Light spoke about what to do with him, treating Kaldur as if he were property, a machine. Their words so dehumanized it sounded as if they quibbled over the gears in a machine. All the logistics of their plans frightened her at first, but now it was only numbness as all the mistakes of her life come to haunt her.

"You told me not to be afraid." Her thoughts wandered to her friends, her family, those they'd lost in battle and how young they were through all the blood and tears. The life of a hero is never an easy one, she knew this well but to take the burden at such a young age, when she was still so young… a girl pulling down her skirt as she headed off to class, a strange innocence that comes with never having lost those close to you, that's all she was. That's all they were, children wearing capes.

That had changed, now she stood beside an old friend who'd sacrificed so much, he'd given all of himself to this job, having lost the love of his life in the midst of the war that never ends. She remembered his face in that moment, watching it crack and break and crumble as he learned Tula was gone and no amount of sorcery or anything within this world of miracles could bring her back. Yet he stood, crying and walking steady as he went on to complete the mission that had claimed Tula's life. He was this force, an epitome of strength unmatched, he was her hero.

"You told me greatness is something terrifying, it's terrifying because it only comes to those who are worthy of it." She placed her other hand on his cold forehead. Over the years it had folded hundreds of times, over missions, over quarrels within the team but in all the frustration he was always the diplomat, always the leader they needed. The noises outside the door subsided; somewhere in her nostalgia the group had come to a decision, sealed with the words of Kaldur's father, Black Manta.

"If there is nothing more I can do, he's yours." The words were followed by the clapping of Klarion and the relieved sighs of the others. The matter was settled with; a life had been decided. It was the cruel fate of their lives, hers and Kaldur's and all those that come from bad blood. Life was never theirs to choose for their fathers always had other plans, or allowed others to make plans for their own children.

Kaldur was the good soldier who had made a name for himself as a leader, respected in two worlds, the surface and Atlantis, regarded by many as a gentle soul with a fierce determination that inspired all those who followed him.

Here was that same man, lying so still in the gray sheets, the lines of his body softened as the blood pulsed slower throughout it. He looked like a ghost, a shadow locked in a dream. The eyes that refused to move had once been the wise eyes, the older brother who had watched out for all his younger siblings. She muffled a cry as she recalled her broken family. All the years she'd spent suffering her father's abuse as he pushed her to be stronger, taught her to kill and brutalized her with an arsenal of weaponry… that is what she thought of moments before her name was called to walk across the stage.

"You are more than your father's daughter Artemis, you are worthy."

It was her body that crumbled now, her knees hitting the floor as if she was telling a prayer. She pulled his hands to his chest, over his heart, wanting to will it back, not the beats for the machine kept it going with each spike in the monitor, no she wanted his soul back.

"Being the bitch won't work this time." She said, laughing as her hair fell over his face, shaking all over again, "Tell me what to do Kal."

In her sobs she opened her mouth to plead to the deities for forgiveness in all she'd done wrong. Her hope was to save him by a miracle that would not be afforded to her. She heard no old man's voice in her ear telling her a penance to be paid, all she heard were the screams of Kaldur as his mind was torn about by their best friend, their family, M'gann.

"I can't do this." She said, gripping the sheet with her free hand, the other still clinging to him, not wanting to let her family go, not wanting to see him like this. What would the team be without him, where would they be but broken and lost. Kaldur was the leader for a reason; he kept them together and now that he was slipping away…

"But you're already gone." She said, lifting her head to see her own reflection against the monitor. Her blonde hair in tangled mats, wet with tears as was her face, red and blotchy, and very much like that of a little girl throwing a tantrum. It wasn't the time to be a child crying over a grave; it was time to be an adult who would stand and take charge, to resume the task of being a hero for a hero was all she was, and in the label was all the good she could hope to give.

In a few minutes they'd come for him and turn the face of her brother into a monster, she had a choice to make. Not so much a choice, it was obvious what had to be done… but the idea of doing it cut the air from her lungs, for a brief moment she heaved each breath as if her own life was being drained. Inside there was a heaviness, like rocks resting in between her heart and ribs. As she rose, her body swayed to the left, her hand hitting the wall, at the bottom was a wire.

One single black wire.

It was barely visible amidst all the other machinery keeping his body breathing. Her own body pushed against the wall and slipped downward, her head scraping against the metal as she sat down. Her fingers traced it's outlining, the wire thicker, hissing silently like a snake in her ear. She squeezed his hand again.

"I don't cry." She mouthed as she remembered her father's beating for tears, she scoffed and laughed and cried again, losing her mind with each finger that wrapped around the wire.

"But, we're just kids." She screamed as her other hand wrapped tighter around his, "we're kids, we're just kids."

She pulled the cord.

The sound of a flat line was like an arrow, striking her heart, above the weight of rocks, deep it went, pulling at her flesh. She could hear footsteps again, knowing she'd have no time for a real goodbye. In a swift motion she jumped to her feet, kisses his cheek and whispers "I'm sorry" into his ear. Pulling back her hands pushed against her face, screaming again and again "I'm sorry!"

The steps grew louder and her cries quieted in each beat across the ground. She knew it was time to be a big girl. The finality of the moment came when her foot kicked against the heart monitor and silence ensued. There was only a corpse and the walking dead by its side. Kaldur's mouth opened, his eyes widening as if coming back to greet his little sister, to smile and say it was a ruse, a façade and in a gleam at the ends of his eyes as his torso swiftly laid back against the bed, there was a message.

"_It'll be alright_." She nodded, waving goodbye.

Seconds later the door threw opened, she was gone, but the air was still holding a whisper of her words.

_We're just kids._

Jade sat in her rocking chair, using her toe to rock back and forth with her child's head resting on her shoulder, the red hair falling gently over her neck. Little Lian had Artemis's resting face, the resting face of anguish and wonder. It frightened Jade in a way. It was an odd feeling to be scared having spent years burying her emotions. Her baby was afraid of something; her baby wore the expression of the dead. She held Lian to her face, kissing her forehead as the light above flickered.

"Mama's gonna keep you safe little beauty, mama's gonna make all the bad people go away." Jade had gotten a phone call earlier that day, one that prompted her to hold Lian so tightly. Kaldur was dead and yet her need to kill was still clawing in her throat, and burning like hell's fire in place of where she believed her soul should be.

She wasn't satisfied, there were still two sais needing a fresh coat of red. She stared at her weapons hanging from the hook of her daughter's bedroom wall, a wall colored eggshell white, dirty with grim. This was her childhood and not the life she wanted for her daughter, and still the desire for slaughter worked its way up her spine and into her fingertips. It was only softened by the touch of her daughter's skin.

"Mama's gonna keep you safe." She whispered as her eyes stared down the pointed edges of her murderer's tool. Regardless of what was to happen, she was going to take her revenge…

"Mama's gonna make all the bad people go away."


	2. Sisters

Artemis rested her foot against a cardboard box, her head leaning on a steel pole as her fingers touched her mask for the third time in the past ten minutes. She could smell urine just a few feet away and a musty odor coming from the other side of the warehouse. This was the rondevu point, where they were suppose to go should plans go awry and they certainly had. One undercover mission that was supposed to end the tyranny of the Light for good cost them their conscience, that conscious personified in Kaldur'ahm. Now he was gone and all that was left were the images of his cold, still body and a voice telling her things would be all right.

"I screwed up." She whispered, holding herself with her arms tightened around her torso. All she could think or believe was that somehow the mess was her fault, the death was on her hands and despite there being Wally and Dick out there knowing who she really was, there was this numbness that came with the thought that she really was a villain. Worse was the truth in Kaldur's death, for all the good he did, all the rights, all the people he saved, he died a villain. It almost seemed impossible to escape one's fate…

"Here kitty, kitty." Artemis jumped to her feet at the sound of her sister's voice, panic setting in as her mind began to question why and how her sister had found her, what purpose was she here, and what would happen should the others arrive? Above all she wondered why her sister, a trained assassin would give her position away so easily.

_ She's not thinking straight..._

"I know you're here kitty." Artemis pushed her body against the steel pole, her foot circling the floor as she used her momentum in one kick to backflip and land on the top packages of the warehouse. Her body flattened against it, her eyes searching below for her sister.

"I hear your friend Kaldur died, it really is too bad since I was suppose to kill him, revenge and all that. But I hear you're his right hand man." Before Artemis could pinpoint the sound, her sister's sai was being thrown towards her; with one punch to her sister's throat and a lunge to the left she narrowly escaped the stabbing. Her feet landing neatly on the ground, barely able to think before her sister took a second swing at her.

"She was my baby sister." Jade said, turning on heel to add speed in her jabs, each hand gripping a sai so firmly, the skin was changing color. Her movements weren't Jade's, not the level-headed Jade with power in her simplistic movements. These were brutal, slightly off point, fueled in anger. That's just what Jade epitomized, anger, rage, raw power... out to kill without a plan.

"I had no part in her death!" Artemis said, attempting to keep the impartial tone of Tigress with her body twisting to the attacks, hopping backwards until she was up against a boiler, the metal burning her back. Jade stepped forward, both beginning to turn in circles around the room, watching one another, waiting for the other to strike. It was their childhood, sparring against each other, even after blood was drawn. Over and over their father had them as children pick a weapon and attack, showing no mercy. Jade was the ruthless one, always going for the most painful marks, the massive bruises Artemis would sustain after the battle was over and yet… afterwards, when their father left for another job there Jade would be with an icepack and ice cream, braiding Artemis's hair on the rooftop of their crumbling apartment. The walls an ash color, the smell of rats' feces, it was their home solely because of one another.

"An eye for an eye, that's what my dad always said, you'll always have one eye left to see your target." Jade twisted one sai in her left hand the other pointed at Artemis's head; ready to pierce the skull. Through the holes of her mask Artemis could see a gloss in Jade's pupils, a wetness on the edges of her mask; she had been crying.

Artemis stepped back, with her eyes still trained on her sister, she kicked a pole next to her, one sticking off the wall like a peg. It broke in half, landing in her hand, flakes of rust falling to the floor like the tears Jade was trying so hard to hide.

"I'm not interested in fighting you…" Artemis tried to think like an assassin, what an assassin would say to someone else, someone trying to hurt her but she knew the answer was nothing. Assassins don't ask questions, if anything they taunt to throw their opponent off guard and they way to do that was mock her own death, to make Jade feel so angry she'd lose her footing and then Artemis could take her. She couldn't do it, she couldn't pretend. Jade had been through as much as Artemis had, she had a daughter at home waiting for her, she didn't need to get herself killed, she had to know that was a possibility.

"I'm not here to chat, I'm here to kill a kitty cat."

And yet she came, Jade came to kill Tigress to avenge Artemis, there was no prior organization, no methodical planning. It was follow and strike, Jade was losing it. If Artemis didn't stop her now, they'd both end up dead. That was their mother's worst nightmare... so close to becoming true. It was all in Artemis's hands now. It all came down to one thing, stopping the ending that their father always predicted, wanted... he wanted soldiers, callous, savage soldiers fighting to the death for the wrong reasons. If she didn't speak up now...

"Listen-" before Artemis could finish her sentence, Jade was on her, knees against Artemis's legs, holding them down, as her elbow pushed against her throat. She held the sharp end of the sai to Artemis's heart, pushing it in slowly, watching the fabric of her uniform and then her flesh break. Artemis let out a cry, struggling to speak as the pressure on her throat grew.

"Maybe I should stab you in your gut, that's where he stabbed my sister, but with the heart, I get to watch you bleed to death… slowly." Artemis withered under her sister's grip, partly hoping Wally and Dick would arrive and save her, another part hoped her sister would finish her off, it was only fair…

_It's only fair I die, I failed Kaldur, I failed everyone._

Artemis closed her eyes, waiting for the final stab into her heart, or torso, head, wherever it was that Jade decided to end her, and then the sound… the sound of their father crept into her air, a hint of laughter in his voice, pleased that his daughters were fighting, that one was ready to kill the other. It was the same laugh from her youth, of the sick sadist pleased by the primal attacks they'd inflict on one another. It was the promise she made to herself that gave her the will to fight back.

I will not be like him; I will not yield.

Artemis pushed her hands against the floor, her wrists moving up hard, knocking into Jade, throwing off her balance enough for Artemis to move her left knee and kick it upward into Jade's chest.

Artemis was on her feet again, jumping against the wall, walking across it speedily, and kicking her foot off it to rise higher into the air. Her golden hair moved in the breeze of the open warehouse door, in beat with her crossbow, turning it on her sister and shooting a spike against her Jade's shoulder.

Jade let out a growl as the spike pushed against the wall, along with her, pinning her to the concrete, not a scratch on her body, only the fabric of her costume was slashed.

"Damn it!" Jade snarled as her body nearly convulsed from anger, she slammed a sai into the spike, hitting it over and over again trying to get lose. Artemis watched, her sister's mask falling off in the madness, the tears finally showing. This was the product of their father's actions, the blood, sweat and tears that embodied their childhood. She wanted to free her, to tell her everything but to do so would compromise everything and with Kaldur gone it was not something she was willingly to do, even for her sister's sanity.

"I'LL STILL GET YOU, I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU, SLOWLY, BIT BY BIT!" Jade screamed, brimming with ruthlessness. All the venom and ease that was Jade's nature was replaced with blind anguish as Artemis turned away, covering her ears.

She walked to the exit, muffling her the tears rolling down the cheeks hidden by the mask of a villain. A few steps from the door, she saw the stars and the moon, wondering where it all went to hell. Kaldur wouldn't have a grave, no his body would be tossed in the sea, she wouldn't see Dick tonight to tell him their comrade, their team member, their friend… their big brother was gone. She couldn't see Wally tonight, kiss him and hold him and listen as he tried to convince her none of this was her fault. Somewhere in Gotham a woman cried as she lit candles whispering a prayer for her daughter who had not yet died. In another home, another room was a child, with red hair like her father's and the eyes of her mother nestled in a crib unaware of all the bad in this world. Behind her was that child's mother who had stopped banging against the steel, murder still in her eyes, a maniacal expression, lips pursed, ready to kill.

"How." Artemis said, with her arms wrapped around her once again as she began to walk again.

"I WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HER!" Jade yelled, her body hurtling toward Artemis, sais in hand having somehow broken free. It was too fast for Artemis to move, to think only act on the instinct her father impressed upon her, ones she thought were long gone. As Jade's sai came to head with Artemis's body, the Tigress turned, twisting Jade's arm, slamming her into the wall. It was a loud, thundering sound, Jade's skull hitting the concrete hard, a crack resounding against the walls. It frightened Artemis, so much so she ran to her sister, checking her forehead for injury. Jade pushed her back, her hands on her body rather than her head.

"Jade?" Artemis whispered as her sister staggered on the ground, falling onto the floor, her hands rising up to reveal blood.

_I said I would not yield... I said, I believed... I failed._

"How do you know my name?" She said, coughing as the blood flowed out of her, staining the green fabric and the ground.

"Jade!" Artemis kneeled down, grabbing her sister tightly. Somehow a sai had turned in on Jade, stabbing her body, right through her vital organs. It was still lodged in when Artemis reached for her. It shimmered under the flickering lights of the warehouse, halfway into her sister's body.

"Who are you?" Jade said, her eyes closing, her head resting on Artemis's arm, her breath slowing down, her body growing paler just as Kaldur's had.

"No, no, not this time, no you're the big sister, you're the strong one." Jade croaked a few words, the syllables sounding something like "Lian" and "why" all adding to Artemis's grief. The loss of her best friend was one painful enough, almost unbearable, but the death of her sister was a finality she refused to accept.

"You're the protector, you're not weak." Jade's breathing stopped, her hand going limp.

"YOU'RE NOT WEAK JADE, YOU'RE NOT WEAK!" Artemis screamed, pulling at her sister's hair just like they did as childhood, screaming into her ear the same words over and over again, hoping her determination would bring her back, sheer will to save her life, a last ditch effort that even she knew, deep down was pointless.

"Wake up Jade, wake up." Artemis said cradling her sister in her arms, just as Jade did when their father beat them, "please, please Jade?" Artemis smoothed the hairs on Jade's face, touching her nose and eyelids, looking for warmth, for a sign of life.

"I knew it wasn't your fault, I never blamed you for the bruises, I knew you tried, so don't go, please don't go." Words falling on deaf ears, she knew this, she knew Jade was gone. She wanted to believe it wasn't her fault, that Jade's anger consumed her and yet Artemis could have broken her cover, sacrificed everything to let her sister know the truth, but amidst the pain would Jade have believed her, even if she took off the necklace… she'd think it was a trick, there was no saving her from herself. Their father destroyed them and no matter how hard they tried they couldn't escape what he made them into, that rawness, that darkness would always be there.

"Artemis?" She heard Wally's voice but did not move; instead she waited for him to come to her. He placed his hands on her shoulders, trying to pull her back but she only cried louder, afraid if she let Jade go she'd make things worse, somehow she knew things could get worse. The feeling that she was a plague set out to destroy those she loved had her kicking Wally away from her, shaking her head, screaming words in Vietnamese, mostly for her mother to come and save them both.

_But it's too late to save us; it's too late._


	3. Choices

Wally had her in his arms, rocking her back and forth underneath a tree in Bludhaven's park. The chains of swings rustled against the steel poles as crows flew overhead bringing their omen of death, the ground barren of grass. At three in the morning there weren't any children playing in the sand-boxes nor crooks moving across the roads to make their deals. It was just quiet with faded lights from streetlamps. He couldn't take her home, she could barely walk.

Artemis couldn't think; her whole body failed to function. Her tongue was dry, her eyes red and her hands seizing as they tried to grip his jacket.

There was something inconsolably in her soul, a soul she often forgot she had, especially under the persona of Tigress. Today she felt alone and cold, borderline hopeless, as if she was Alice tumbling down the hole without any chance of landing.

"Artemis." Wally tried to speak to her, to awaken her again, to pull her through the darkness she was drowning in. He hated seeing her in this state of loss, of confusion, of fear. The first time was when Tula died, Tula who'd she grown so close to, and Artemis being the one witness to her death. It took time but soon enough Artemis was better again, better with his words, his embraces; it was like old times. His hope of pulling her out of the heroic world to save her was successful and for awhile they were safe, she was safe. Now with this, the death of her sister at her own hands, he had little to say that would ease her pain.

"Kaldur's dead." Artemis whispered, her fingers pressing into him, desperate to hold onto his warmth. The reality she experienced felt as though it were a virus spreading through her blood. All the years she lived, she'd believed she wasn't Alice and now she felt the name of Artemis was like the dark side of the story, the dark side of the moon where the forgotten stories are told. Where the little girl dies in the end because she's no hero in a fantasy world, she's a villain in hell.

Wally wrapped her up tightly against his chest, shaking his head, kissing her cheek, trying to salvage what was left of her hope but he couldn't quite manage a lining in the clouds. Their friends were dying all around them; their voices like ghosts in their ears telling them to run. They were these kids moving about trying to save world and failing to save themselves. He knew it, she knew it, but they could barely say it out loud. It was the thought they most often repressed.

"What are we doing anymore?" She asked, her body feeling the chill despite the Spring season; it was the chill of death that lingered with a murder. She could hardly say it now but she had killed her sister, her sister who only wanted to protect her, and with the conscience of the group, Kaldur, gone who was left to clean the mess they made, the destruction they'd caused. It had always been their intention to do good for this word. For all their wishful thinking, for all their well devised plans to fix the world, it didn't matter. They were just laughable in the face of reality.

"We're trying Artemis, we're trying." He didn't want to tell her what they already knew. He didn't want to reinforce her worst fears, God forbid he make her feel worse. All he wanted was to see her smile, it was his only comfort as his was hers in times like these but now it felt like the world was breaking at the seams, threads sprawled out at their feet. They both wanted it to be over, but it never would be.

They could play house, act as normal college kids with all nighters, red bull and sweatpants, play Frisbee, buy a dog and be all smiles but at the end of the day, crawling into bed from the exhaustion of life they always held on to one another, holding tight as they buried all the blood and bruises of their hero days.

"I'll take care of you, I'll take care of you." His fingers slipped into her hair, the blonde strands were dirty with grim from her recent fight. He could barely smell the scent of apples, the smell he associated with her presence. Her frame shivered and shook, sobbing harder as she desperately tried to block the faces of the dead from her mind.

_ How many more have to die?_

"I know you will."

….

They were trapped, trapped inside what should be the safest place in the world. There were beeping sounds from a bomb ticking every second, each count like a marker to their doom. Conner knew by the sirens outside, the eyes watching from the glass window above and the terrified expressions of the freshmen, that there wasn't much of a choice in the matter. All they could do was fight back. Not that he was afraid. He hadn't been afraid of death in sometime, only of dying without a purpose and filling it. Each battle he fought there was always the question, "is this the battle where the stillness comes?"

Today, the question comes up again. They were caged inside the Hall of Justice, wounded and weak. Conner was the last chance any of them had to get out. He didn't take it as a time to be afraid, but rather an opportunity to protect the younger ones. The heroes that were fighting a war far too old for their youthful faces, now coated in purple, black and red.

"What do we do Conner?" Cassie was at his side, her shoulder had been pulled out of its socket and no matter how many times she tried to push it back in, she was too tired, too weak to keep it locked in place for long. She could barely stand.

They were up against Black Beetle again, along with an army of Reach members who were ready with their weapons, filling out the corners of the hall. Outside, the military had their tanks prepared to blow them all to hell, if there was such a place, worse were the cameras filming the whole thing as if their deaths would be some sort of publicity for their network, a form of entertainment. Conner scoffed at the thought, his eyes moving to Bart who was unconscious and then to Garfield who was breathing heavily having been shot in the ribcage, just missing his lungs.

Conner sighed, frustrated by the scene before him. From behind were the heroes, struggling to move with guns and the like pointed at their heads. In front was Black Beetle himself, a creature so vile he had an Amazon shivering. Cassie still had nightmares filled with the echoes of her own body being slammed against steel. Worse was the irony, villains in the hall of Justice prepared to destroy the children or what Conner viewed as children. Despite his age and his looks he felt like an old man who had lived too long.

"Get the others out, I'll handle the rest." He was an old man with a drum beating the rhythm of a swan song.

"Conner!" He shot her a look, determined and authoritative. Upon seeing his expression, she closed her mouth, her muscles tightening as she reached for Bart behind her.

"Jaime, get Gar," he said, stepping up as one man against an army. The soldiers behind him contested. Jaime shook his head, refusing to go.

"This is my battle too Conner," he said trying to sound more mature, but there was a crack in his voice, a crack that came from his own fear. No one here wanted to go, but Conner was indifferent to it, the kids behind him had far more to lose than he did.

"Tim lead them out," Conner said with Black Beetle laughing as he transformed his own armor to that of a gun.

"You think you can get out?" Tim shuddered at Black Beetle's voice, his bo staff moving up in front of him as he prepared to fight his way out.

Garfield began to bleed, the child's blood curling into a circle on the floor. Jaime reached for him, pulling him up in his arms like a broken lamb. The boy clutched his wound, the green contrasting with the red flowing out of his small frame.

"Don't bother, you're all dying tonight." Black Beetle wanted them to be afraid, to fall to their knees and beg for mercy, to break their souls and watch the tears fall off their cheeks to their faintly beating hearts as they prepared to die. But Conner, the Superboy, was irritating. The boy was cut deep in the chest, the leg, and hand yet he stood tall and even dared to step closer to him, to his army with a growl.

Conner in turn thought about Black Beetle's words "You're all dying tonight."

"Not all, not tonight," Conner replied defiantly. He jumped forward, his better genes adding speed and height to the jump, nearly flying in the air. Black Beetle took the shot.

He missed.

The trajectory was off by a few degrees giving Tim a perfect opportunity to redirect the blast with his bo staff off to an empty spot on the floor. Cassie held Bart in her arms as she arched closer to the doorway, with Jaime behind her, she silently cheered in Tim's success.

Tim landed on his feet, the staff tightening in his hand as the lactic acid built in his joints; the jump was more than his body could take, the power of turning the blast in an alternate direction proved to be even more difficult than he had originally thought. But even with all the pain, he found strength in the voice of a boy he had not known, a boy who'd worn the very same emblem he did now, the voice of Jason Todd yelling at him to fight.

He couldn't go; he couldn't abandon a teammate. Despite all the warnings from Dick and Bruce, all the worried looks and doubts, he stayed in place, with his staff.

"Didn't know if that'd actually work, although Tungsten is a good conductor…" He cracked a smile, twirling the staff in his hands, and abruptly stopping it in front of his body as if challenging both Black Beetle and the Reach army with it.

"Attack!" Black Beetle shouted, with hundreds of weapons clicking and moving up to point at their targets. Cassie threw Bart over to Jaime ushering the three boys out of the way as the blasts reached them, she in turn stopped each one with her silver bracelets, her hair singeing along with bits of her flesh from the residual effects of each blast. Her body was faltering.

Tim jumped towards her, deflecting the blasts with his staff as best as he could. Yet for all the training he'd done with the bat family, he still wasn't as quick as his older counterparts, and he missed one.

The blast hit his arm, pushing him backward and leaving him wide open for further attack. It was Conner who'd moved over him, his back torn from the blasts he took as he hovered over the young boy.

"Tim, take the others, get out now, Cassie and I will hold them off." Conner picked Tim up and threw him over to the open doors where Jaime blasted in turn at the attacks, shielding Gar and Bart behind him. Cassie followed suit, she and Jaime protecting the boys as they waited for Conner to move.

The members of the Reach ran toward them, continuing to shoot. Conner reached for two of their heads, slamming them against one another and knocking them to the ground. He grabbed more members, twisting their bodies and throwing them against the walls. Jaime watched as the others fought for their escape. They were trapped inside. There was no point in trying to get out and yet Conner kept insisting they head for the exits. He could tell Conner had something in mind, something that terrified Jaime because of ending it entailed.

"Conner, watch out!" Jaime yelled.

Without a second thought, he flew over to Conner as the combined force of four blasts aimed at Conner blasted through. It was Jaime who stood in between Conner and the shots. The boy fell from the air, onto the ground, shaking from the feel of electricity.

"Not compatible!" The scarab shouted as the pain seeped in through both of their bodies, sweat and blood coming from his pores as he struggled to stay still instead of convulsing from the pain.

Conner reached for the boy's body, 16 years old, with barely any experience at all. This had been without a mentor, just like him. They'd bonded over that fact, even when Clark finally came around, there was still that pain of being abandoned and also the memory of being alone. Everyone else had someone to guide them except him. And here was a boy without a guiding light, a light so desperately needed when becoming a hero. Here was that boy on the floor, with Conner at his side while more children were fading out slowly. There he was. He was their last defense. He reached for Jaime's hand, feeling for a pulse…

It was far too slow…

"This ends now!" Conner shouted, despite the threads of his shirt torn into pieces, the "S" was more or less intact. His fingers moved over it, tracing it for strength.

The members of the Reach moved closer to him, Black Beetle at the forefront; Conner stood tall. All around them were the shards of the Justice League's statues, like broken bodies of gold. It almost felt like déjà vu but from what he couldn't remember, not in that moment

"This place used to be the Hall of Justice," Conner said, pushing Cassie behind him, "Where the heroes came together and tried to figure out how to help the world." Black Beetle's fist moved to hit Conner's face; instead Conner caught it with his hand, twisting it in his grip.

"You fool," Black Beetle said, his other arm moving to crush Conner's skull as the minions lined up to shoot the kryptonian.

"We still haven't figured it out," he said, feet stepping forward to push Black Beetle back, "But we'll always try, always."

His other hand went in between them, hitting Black Beetle's chest to knock him backwards into the Reach members. They all tumbled back into the glass cases that were still standing. The markings of the emblems above their heads, hung on the wall, fell on top of them. The shields around the hall broke as the commander, Black Beetle, briefly fell unconscious, losing his control. It was their last chance to escape.

"Cassie?"

"I got it Con!" she yelled with Jaime in her arms, cradling him gently. Her eyes were becoming redder and redder with the sound of beeping noises just a few feet away.

Conner didn't move, not with the sound of shuffling behind him as the freshmen began to exit, or what was left of the freshmen that is. Gar was barely able to stand. Tim had taken a hold of Bart, the five of them moving as fast as they could to get out. Cassie flew out above the building quickly, knowing they would be locked inside again. She didn't want to think about anything else, not when she could see in Conner's eyes what he was thinking.

"Conner!" Tim shouted, he was trying to keep Bart up right. The speedster out cold for most of the battle having been blasted by Black Beetle the moment they arrived. He was beginning to awaken, mumbling the words crash and mode as he struggled to speak. There was a reason he had come with the team tonight, but his mind was so far gone he couldn't remember.

"Go Tim, now."

"I can call Nightwing, I can get back-up!" Tim said, desperate to make Conner come with him. He could hear Jason telling him to do so. He could feel the desperation Jason had felt when he died. The stories of the explosion were becoming more vivid now with Conner assuming Jason's role.

It terrified him. He wanted to move. He wanted to save Bart and the others. He wanted to be the leader everyone had hoped he'd become, but he wanted to assure Conner's survival. He wanted to save them all.

But that would imply a happy ending and he knew those were for storybooks, not the real world, not the world a hero lived.

He dashed out, afraid of what he might do if he stayed longer.

Conner moved slowly towards the bomb, a bomb designed to blow up half the city. The purpose was unclear, and there was no time to try and understand it. There are few things a man facing death wishes to know, especially with his head crowded with memories of his life flashing before his eyes. Lucky for Conner he'd only lived five years.

What man would kill someone so young? Yet here Conner was marching to the beeping noises, shattering dreams of the future at five years old, the body of a 16 year old and the mind of a wise sage. He knew the stillness was to come, but took solace in the kids escaping. They would live another day to change the world because of him. He needed to believe that. He needed to believe that someone as heartless as Black Beetle, who'd tried to murder these kids so young, would pay and all those like him would know the stillness someday.

That's why they were heroes.

Right?

To protect the innocent and bring the guilty to justice.

Black Beetle rose from the rubble, the shield locked once again just as the last of the freshmen exited. Turning back was not an option. He grinned at Conner, stepping to meet him as he reached for the bomb.

"What were you planning on doing? You can't fly halfbreed." Black Beetle moved his fingers to the boomtube on his waist. It was how he had planned to escape, with the touch of it between himself and his finger. He was egging Conner on, daring him to take it and try.

"Come at me," Conner said, smirking.

The two jumped into the air, pouncing and ready. Black Beetle was ready for the slaughter. Conner was ready to succeed. It was the fundamental difference between the two powerhouses. One so bent on destruction, the other a young man trying to do the right thing. The voice of Clark was in his head now, telling him it would be okay in the end. It would be okay.

The two came to a head, falling onto the floor with a resounding crack coming from both their bodies. Their skulls hit the concrete, but neither was fazed by it. They struggled against the ground, punch to punch, kick to kick with Conner splitting the floor as blood dripped from his teeth.

"Fool," he muttered as his hand reached for Conner's neck, trying to squeeze the air from his lungs.

Conner's eyes turned red. He coughed up salvia as he struggled to breathe. Black Beetle smiled, pleased with himself that while the death of Conner Kent was not going as planned it was still being done.

Unbeknownst to him, Conner's hand had slipped to Black Beetle's side, pulling the boomtube from his waist, and blasting it in front of them. He was so shocked by the sound of the tube, Black Beetle turned around to see for himself. Conner took this opportunity to push the alien off his body, kicking his knees to knock him to the floor and raced towards the bomb itself, seconds away from going off. The world was slow, his face covered in slashes, bleeding and coated in purple.

"Why do you go on!" Black Beetle screamed beside himself while blasting Conner over and over, trying to stop him, but to no avail. He wanted to kill Conner himself. He had made it up in his mind just a second ago that he'd rather have Conner die by his will and here Conner was, ruining it.

Conner could feel every shot, stunning the nerves on his skin, yet not the feeling inside. He reached for the bomb and then moved towards the open hole the boomtube had caused between him and Black Beetle. He knew he'd have to go with it, what with Black Beetle racing towards him to snatch the bomb from his grasp.

He knew merely throwing the bomb wouldn't stop Black Beetle. He would simply reach for it by opening the portal again. He knew the flames from the explosion along with the other chemicals used to bake it would catch on the portal and fire back. He knew what he had to do. He had to be a shield one more time.

He pushed the bomb against his chest, the weight of it suddenly so heavy in his arms, and took his final leap.

"Because, it's what superman would do."

….

Roy sat unmasked with his daughter in his arms, word had just gotten to him that Jade was dead. Who had done it and why were still unknown, at least to him. Those were the details Dick chose to leave out for Roy's sake. When Wally had called him, he couldn't believe it, Kaldur and Jade dead, worse the latter was from Artemis's own doing. He tried not to shudder, tried to keep himself composed but the fact was two people were dead because of his plan. Once again he was reminded of consequences and how his best intentions can still lead to disastrous endings.

"Where's her body?" Roy asked, moving towards Lian's crib to lay her down for a nap. She looked so sleepy, eerily so. Part of him wondered if the child new her mother was gone and she'd fallen into a state of depression.

"I have it safe with some trusted friends." Dick replied, he looked over the child as well. In a way she looked like Artemis, it was in the eyes, a determined expression yet strangely already worn, something was hurting the child, something in someway that was internal.

"Paula won't be able to handle it." Roy said, his voice strained as he lightly touched his daughter's forehead, worried over the folds forming in her skin as if she were in pain.

"Do you plan on telling her?" Dick said, hoping the answer would be no. Roy didn't answer him; instead he leaned over his daughter's wooden crib, as if using it to stand up right. Dick nodded as if he understood; he walked over to the window, a view of Gotham on the other side of the glass. The city was dark and gloomy, as if always in mourning, and once again he was reminded why that was.

_Because someone is always dying._

Dick's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his phone; he looked at the caller ID to see it was Cassie. It was strange, hearing from her so late at night. Last he'd heard from he was the day before; she and Conner were planning on visiting the hall of justice for some maintenance. The freshmen were coming along with him, kind of like a show and tell type thing to get them better acquainted with the life of a hero, the good side that is.

Dick was having trouble onto that side, what with all that had happened because he wanted to do the right thing. He screwed up in the most horribly way and there was no way to fix what he had done. He hated himself for it, so much so he just wanted to fade out of existence, but he couldn't, he knew he couldn't because there were still people counting on him.

He'd once believed the good side of being a hero was helping people. These same being said to admire the hero, love the hero and above all appreciate them. Of course what comes with celebrity status is also the ideal that one is a piece of amusement and abandoned should they make any mistakes or there be rumor of mistakes, they didn't like to tell them that, at least not Dick Grayson, not when they were so full of hope.

"Hey Cassie, what's up?" Dick asked as he moved closer to the door, speaking in a low volume so as not to wake Lian.

"Dick…" Cassie's voice broke as she said his name, sounding more like a child than she ever had before.

"Conner's gone."

…

Three old friends stood on the wooden floor of Dick's apartment with their heads lowered as if they were praying. In reality their thoughts were filled with all that had happened in the short few weeks they'd devised this plan. Artemis hated that word, _plan_; it was synonymous with misfortune. They had lost another one of their own, a person they'd grown up with in a sense, a fellow hero who they couldn't even bury, it wasn't right, it wasn't fair. She scoffed at that last word; fairness was a word she hadn't been acquainted with.

"We have to do something, we have to act now." Artemis was adamant about taking action. She was done with plotting in the shadows, she wanted to fight, to break some skulls and get justice for her fallen friends, for her sister.

From Artemis's briefing, Dick now knew the real headquarters of the reach and the previous rescue mission was on one base of operations. He had the technology to cause the entire headquarters to malfunction with a special virus he and Wally had been designing since the plan began and it would merely take one trip to insert the virus but with all that had gone wrong already, he knew there would be no guarantee that it would end there. He was terrified of losing one more person because he hadn't thought all the details through and regardless of the precautions he took, his friends still ended up dead. It was his carelessness that put Kaldur at risk, how could he have been so reckless as to now warn the telepath on the team of what they were doing, how could he not seen how she had changed.

The silence went on with Artemis nearly growling at the thought of all that had passed. She was eager to move forward having had enough of tears. Wally watched her facial expressions twist in anguish; he sighed knowing what was to come next.

"If you're going in, I am to." Wally had Artemis's hand against his chest, he knew that she was going to ignore Wally's pleas for her to come back to him, to give it all up and just come home because in Artemis's mind that wasn't an option anymore. In fact, as much as he hated to admit it, it wasn't an option for him either and so he was determined to go with her. Artemis was the unstoppable force, the immovable object in his path. There was no choice in the matter really for his only choices where to fight with her or watch her die and the latter was just as impossible as it was to change her mind.

Artemis didn't object to Wally's demand; he was as stubborn. Quite frankly, she couldn't imagine going without him at this point. The question now was Dick. They knew he'd be right by their sides but how to go about rather how they'd go about the matter. They'd already decided to keep M'gaan out of this out despite the fact that she now knew the truth. She had been questioning her own judgment, afraid to use her powers in fear that she'd make another mistake. She blamed herself for all that had gone wrong, in Dick's mind she was taking his blame and it made him sick. Worse was M'gaan's face as she held Gar's hand, Gar who was in critical condition. No matter how many times La'gaan tried to reassure her that he'd be alright, the pain on her face would not go away.

It was up to them, for the sake of the team, the league, the world. They had to stop the invasion.

"I guess all that's left is coordinate." Dick leaned against his breakfast table, his fingers rubbing against the wood. If they wanted to succeed they had to approach this final hurrah from a simpler time when they were kids that knew too much but not so much it killed them inside. What was left of their dead hearts had to be revived to keep them sane long enough to complete the mission.

"No more secrecy, no more lies. It's time we do this old school." Wally and Artemis nodded as Dick spoke, even though he wasn't outright saying all he was thinking, they understood what he meant. If they wanted to win the war they had to stop treating this mission like life and death despite the fact that this was the very essence of all that was happening. No, they had to go about it as heroes do, for the good of the people and doing so because it was their choice, not because they felt they must. They'd been aware of the consequences and that had not stopped their friends from dying, nothing could stop death.

Wally put his hand on Dick's shoulder, his mind on keeping the woman he loved and his best friend alive. Everything that had happened in his life seemed to be preparation for this, to save the people that meant the most to him. With Artemis's hand in his and his other rested on Dick's heavy shoulders, he let them know he was in it for the long haul.

"So it's settled then?" Artemis said, her words sounding more like a statement than a question.

"Tomorrow, we go in." Dick responded quietly.

"Tomorrow we fight." Wally said.

"Tomorrow," Artemis raised her head to look them both square in the eyes, "we end this."


	4. Nightmare

**I feel like a bum for taking so long to upload the next chapter, here's hoping I can get the other two edited within the next two days ...**

* * *

Once again, M'gann found herself in the Bialyian desert, alone in the dark with nothing but sand and stars for comfort. She didn't know how she got here, to the dry air and wisps of clouds in the sky or the stillness of the desert but she was here. Something drew her to this place, but she couldn't place exactly what it was, she only had the feeling of numbness on her skin and a vague taste of sand and cactus on her tongue.

"It was an ambush." Dick had said, "We didn't know."

Eventually, she nestled herself in the gold grain dirt of the desert, pushing her feet into the ground like a child would to a blanket. She tried to ignore her conscience as it loudly reminded her of all she'd done wrong. It was the superego of her mind that hissed in her ears and tugged at her skin… it blamed her for everything; she blamed herself for everything. Had she not been so reckless, Kaldur would be alive. If he had lived, he would have warned them ahead of time of the ambush and Conner would be safe. Now they were both gone, Gar and Jaime were in critical condition and she was at fault. Her family had been brutalized because of her personal vendetta that ultimately was the resounding trumpet of her doom; she destroyed what she loved because she crossed the line that no hero can cross lest they fall from grace. She knew she'd stepped over the line of right and wrong but for so long she'd written it off as her own brand of morality, one that forms for every person in the business of saving people because what does a veteran hero always see but death and destruction.

She was wrong, she knew now she was wrong because her rationalization was a mere copying mechanism for her real betrayal, the betrayal to the people that count on her. The only way she slept at night was to pretend she was still on the side of good, that she wasn't abusing her abilities and because of her denial, she had brought doom to them all.

"It's all my fault." She hated herself for coming to Earth and ruining all the lives around her; she was a murderer parading around as a saint. All this time she believed her actions to be just and warranted, that she could punish the guilty and her powers were her incentive to do so.

"I thought I was doing the right thing," She laid her head down, with her hands against her face like cell cloths shielding her from the reality of the world she watched crumble; her body curled tightly into itself. The anguish was far too much for her, so much so she couldn't keep her humanoid appearance. Her flesh turned to chalk white, veins protruded from her limbs, the humanity in her eyes faded into that of her true form.

When she came to Earth she had dreams of being accepted, of being loved. All those dreams came true and more. She had friends, family, a home, a boy who adored her and all around the world she was proclaimed a hero for her actions, a savior of many, a symbol of hope.

They all epitomized hope. They were youthful faces with smiles and weapons, ready to take on the villains, to prove the corrupt could not consume their world without brave individuals stepping up to take a stand against them. They were the protectors of the innocent, they were regarded as good and now… now, the good were dead… or worse; they were villains themselves.

_I am a villain._

A villain so evil she'd killed her friends, ironically in the name of justice. It was poetic in a way. It was poetic that she found herself lost again, wondering what had happened to the girl who only wanted to fit in, the girl of clichéd teenage troubles with a laugh like honey. Those were simpler days where her one life goal was to be like Megan from a sitcom, cheery and flawed but happy. She wanted a simple fantasy of adolescent shenanigans as her own reality because it felt so much safer than the hell she'd been living in as a white Martian on Mars. This character with red hair, freckles and an obsession with baked goods, that was the clichéd life she assumed all Earth girls had. Earth, where she foolishly believed there was no prejudice or racism, where good always won, and the heroes would always be the heroes, never tempted by the same sins evil committed. Now she lived a nightmare, a nightmare of so many as they bury the unspoken truth of life; death was not only caused by those labeled as villains, but also the proclaimed heroes.

The day the woman who created Megan died, the Megan inside of her died too. The only resemblance of her past was in her relationship with Gar, who she couldn't even protect. She'd lost everything, not even the kind words of La'gaan could fix this nor Dick's reassurance. She knew better, she knew he blamed himself for everything, that he was prepared to fix all that went wrong even if it meant his own life. The thought hurt her as she recalled little Dick Grayson in his colorful Robin uniform, cackling from the trees, their childhood in a sense. Now he was an adult facing consequences from her own warped ideals of justice. She'd ruined his life too.

"I shouldn't be here." M'gaan started to scream. She moved up and down the sand like an animal in pain. Her body rose from the ground in a maniac like state as she soared over the hills of sand. She flew faster and faster until her body caved in with such a force, she couldn't help but lose her balance and fall to the ground below. A pile of sand blew up into the night sky.

A few feet away, the Biaylian soldiers watched the spectacle, horrified by what this creature would do to them. They watched as she turned over and over, struggling to sit still. All that erupted from her mouth were screams as she saw Kaldur's face. Kaldur her big brother, Conner her first love. Then there was the face of Garfield, so small, whose life would be so different, so full of promise had it not been for her. Queen Bee took revenge on her by murdering his mother; he had his powers because she entered his life and because of his good heart he thought it was best to fight against the evils that took his mother. She brought him into this world, this world that shot him and left him in a hospital bed.

All she saw was the body of a child with a bullet wound, the very image coated with contradictions that seeped into her like knife.

_Children are not meant for bullets._

The soldiers watched the creature writher in pain as she moved in grotesque twists, her body contorted in the most awful way. Some asked if they should capture "it" for later use, others wondered if it was going to attack them and others pulled out their radios to alert the others. Surely their queen would want to see the creature.

One soldier moved past the rest, a callow boy who'd lost his family in the war. He watched her move, her spine arched in a nauseating manner as if every cell on her body was on fire.

"She's in pain." He said, sorrow in his voice.

He knew it well.

Regardless of species, gender, background, race, religion or ethnicity there was a pain that all living beings come to know, some more than others. He knew there was little one could do but put the creature out of its misery.

M'gann could see Kaldur's face over and over, watching the lines of his body fade inward as if the blood was rushing out of him; he didn't even have a chance to plead his case when she attacked, not one word was spoken. The very idea drove her mad. When the innocent died she lost her own and now she was what she feared most. The monster she was inside had been exposed and the façade could no longer be.

"I am death, I am destruction, I am a monster." She whispered as the guns unloaded bullets on her body. It was like silver glitter falling from the fingers of humans. She could feel them against her body, but her skin was too resistant, too hard to penetrate her flesh all the way through. She knew this.

Soon, her mind entered into chaos and her body, severed from the mind in her cationic state, rose. She screeched loudly and charged at their bodies, pulling them apart until she rose up higher into the air and down again in a thunderous drop. She was uncontrollable.

The same soldier who had taken notice of her pain a moment ago had run away from her, moving in the direction of the oil fields. He was afraid of what would come should he stay.

M'gann was close behind, following him solely because he was the fastest thing within her eyesight. Her mind had turned animalistic and her mouth uttered a dreadful howl to alert her prey she was near and ready to strike.

The soldier stopped abruptly when he reached the oil drums, looking up at the sky for brilliantly lit stars. He wanted to use the constellations as a map to find his way home; he shuttered a moment later when he remembered his home had burned to the ground from an aerial strike, it had been the start of his story as a solider. He saw her just as she landed fairly close to where he stood. His gun was aimed at the oil drum behind her, prepared to shoot it should she come closer.

"I don't want to hurt you." He said in his native tongue, wondering if the creature could even process words let alone his language. It was the language that so many today feared, the language he spoke and the appearance he was born with both factors in society's judgment. She could sense this, the sorrow in the thought, and with that thought she shared a kingship with him.

While half her mind belonged to madness, the other emphasized with the young boy who pointed a gun at her body. They were both broken, they both knew what it was like to be set apart from the rest in the most negative way.

He watched her breath become steady as she lowered herself to the ground. Her fingers reached up to touch him, to let him know it was not her intention to harm him, she could not bear more pain whether it was her own or another's.

She wasn't Miss Martian the hero, yet she wasn't a beast; she was a living being very much afraid of her actions and entirely unsure of how to go on. M'gaan could sense this boy was good, just by his stance. He did not carry himself like drone nor did he move like one eager to kill. He smiled at her like a human willing to help. She feared for his life now for she had come to learn something in her years of fighting as a hero; the good die young.

The soldier lowered his gun and raised his hand up to accept hers; he wasn't afraid of her. For all the awful things in this world, he had always felt there were twice as many good things. There was a time he'd let that thought fade, and with that fading came the guns and the orders from his commanders in the military. It nearly consumed him, but not enough to stop him from accepting her hand, not enough to completely dehumanize him.

Their fingers were seconds from meeting, seconds from making a connection for whatever reason there was to make a connection. In the moment, M'gaan had a speck of hope that all she'd done wrong, all the good that had gone from this Earth, were all part of a cycle that could be amended if she could try harder, if she could pick herself up for the sake of the soldier and demand their deaths be given meaning. If she could just find the strength to fight back and make it all right...

It was the basic need of every creature to seek out and touch the lives of others.

The moment faded as soon as M'gaan's felt the black liquid on her body, it soaked her entire frame and made her cough from the wretched smell. Moments later her flesh burned up in a glaze of fire.

Somewhere out of sight and out of mind there had to have been a second soldier with a gun pointed at them both, taking a shot at the oil drum. It had exploded causing the oil to spew everywhere. She could see the boy was in excruciating pain but there was nothing she could do to ease it as her own cells boiled under the heat. Her senses could not communicate a warning, only shots of scorching nerves felt so vividly as she crumbled to the ground.

She could pick up colors in the whirl of red and the scent of black smoke. She could hear the quiet footsteps, ones she knew and ones she didn't. Her mind was a flurry of past and present, all in conjunction with one another as her soul pleaded forgiveness, and regret.

There was nothing she could do for the boy or for herself… and yet she begged her body to last long enough to make a difference, one last difference to redeem herself. Her prayers were to deaf ears, or to those who didn't care, either way she struggled to hang on. M'gaan knew there would be no hero to come rescue her, but for all the times she had been saved just in time, she wished above all else she could do that for one more person, any person at all.

She thought of Artemis in her last moments; memories of her Earth sister came like a sudden storm amidst the blaze of orange, red and black. Her lips mouthed out words as she caught her last sight of the world but her cells had disintegrated with the fire.

There was no one to save the boy, there was no one to save her, to help the team, her family. She would die without every making up for her crimes, without ever being able to ask for forgiveness. She collapsed on the ground as the fire swallowed her whole.

_"I never wanted to be the nightmare."_


	5. Of Mice and Men

Wally was breathing heavily; he'd run past the Reach's guards so fast, not even the electric fence blocking the doorway could stop him. It was really a miraculous thing, the way he'd phased through it without thinking about it. It was one of the small fortunes of this last ditch mission, of course there were consequences to minimal planning. His cells were a mess and his mind was frantic, much like the mind of Artemis, who was at his side. Both had there knees bent, prepared to attack at any moment. The Reach Headquarters was certainly secured in every sense, and there was no time to breathe amidst the constant threat of being captured.

Wally slumped to the floor, unable to keep his cells tightly locked while standing. Artemis kneeled down to touch his cheek; her palm was wet from his sweat. Her own mind was a mess of tangents, some of her former teammates that had gone, and one of M'gann crying in the recess of her thoughts. IT was like a shadow that chose to stay in her mind and block all her focus, she did her best to silence the tears but with Wally so weak, it was difficult to not completely give in to exhaustion.

Artemis pressed down on his chest in hopes it would somehow stabilize him, keep molecules together, she had little time to come up with a better idea with the Reach troops inches away.

"Wally you idiot, get yourself together!" She whispered, half smiling at her own pun. Wally's body shook in laughter, his cheeks turning red as he moved to her lap, prepared to take a nap right there and possibly, he wished, have sweet dreams of dinner with Artemis in their apartment. She touched his forehead, moving the red strands of hair from his face, all of which were sticky from his last endeavor.

"Stay with me West." The softness in her voice made him rise, he remembered why they were here, and worse he remembered why what Artemis was afraid of. He smiled at her and grabbed her shoulders to kiss her on the cheek. Wally was still out of breath but less nauseous than he was a moment ago. Despite past events, they'd entered into an unspoken agreement, to keep it together long enough for the mission, and then sleep in their bed again, with tears for however long they needed them. At the moment though, the best thing they could do was abandon the sorrow in favor of a temporary happiness, a comfort that came from acting like children again.

"Thanks beautiful, now where's Dick?" Artemis pointed to a corridor where the acrobat has run off to, flash drive in hand. It was the very same flash drive Kaldur had given to him before he'd died; it contained the headquarters of the Reach, not just where the detainees were being held but the actual location of their enemies. The headquarters ironically enough were in a warehouse owned by Lex enterprises, a warehouse of sorts in the Middle East hotspot of Bialya. Prior to them even coming here there had been some sort of gunfight, an explosion which had panicked them all but whatever it was, it seemed to have calmed down shortly after their arrival.

Artemis shuttered at the thought that the people, or rather the creatures, responsible for the loss of her family, her sister and brothers, were hiding like cowards and the world was to careless to see for themselves. The place was an arsenal of weapons, enough explosives to destroy the entire planet and yet these were the people that were hailed the never heroes of Earth. Meanwhile, the good were dying for the people who couldn't even recall such heroes existed. Who would remember Aqualad and Superboy when the Reach was parading around like the planet's new savior.

The three heroes today certainly didn't feel like heroes but rather agents attempting to salvage the memory of the fallen. One day prior to their break in, the three had decided to go in and initiate Kaldur's plan, to destroy the Reach's ships with a virus that Kaldur and Artemis had worked on shortly before his death. He'd watched in the shadows, mentally storing notes of various programming, figuring out how the Reach ticked, how the Light operated. Slowly, they put the pieces together, recreating the FOG program doctor Roquette had made years prior.

_Back when were really just kids._

Wally grabbed Artemis and sped her off in a bridal style manner to their friend who was at work on the Reach's motherboard, having inserted the flash drive moments earlier. He was hard at work entering the code Kaldur had gave him to cause the ships self-destruction.

"How many?" Dick asked, his eyes still focused on the software. Dick's fingers moved across the alien technology with a swiftness that was similar to his mentor and yet a soft agility that was recognized by Wally as the acrobat in him, struggling with the former.

"About seven, we took out the other ten, more will be coming soon." Artemis answered. She turned to Wally, her eyes watched as he trembled, his body still struggling to fully stay intact after his surprise molecule rearrangement.

"Is it working?" Wally asked, he took Artemis's hand. It was his way of letting her know he was all right. As always, she was there to help him stand up right. The two stood close as they watched Dick work, his eyes darting to the entrance whenever he heard a noise.

"So far so good, if everything goes according to pl-"

"Don't." Artemis said, she couldn't stop herself from interrupting; she equated the word "plan" with profanity, or worse a slur that must never be uttered, a word synonymous with a bad omen. She'd had enough of those, what with her so many lost to their plans already. She could hear the classic quote mocking her now.

_All the best plans of mice and men often go awry._

"Right." Dick said. After word had gotten out that Conner was dead, he and Wally returned to the hall of justice. Both of them stiff from the sight they saw, the blood from Garfield's body was dry on the floor, as was that of Conner's from the slash wounds he'd endured before his death. Black Beetle had escaped, but surveillance footage had revealed what had occurred, the boom tube… Conner's sacrifice. They knew any one of them, them being the original 6, would have acted the same and had they all been there Conner would have survived or they would have all gone down together. They shared a mentality in heroism but their bond was far more than commodore, it was the trust that came from live or die situations, it was the love that came from sacrifice and promises. They were a family, despite all the repression that took place as they tried to bury the pain of losses and carry on with life, they would always be the 6 kids chatting away telepathically as they put their lives on the line for a world that would never remember their names.

Wally touched the top of Artemis's head; she had a void expression with a gloss in her eyes that worried him. She looked up at him and smiled, she'd gotten lost in thought again.

Her mind was back to the mission, and once again she questioned all she knew so far. The flash drive had certainly opened up new questions such as why the Light had apocalyptic technology in the first place, or was it the Reach that had obtained it first? Of course those answers didn't matter, not when they had made the brash decision to go in for the kill, so to speak, and take out the Reach themselves.

It wasn't the wisest thing they'd done, but there was a caviler aspect to each of their personalities, a rush from their youth that had stayed with them throughout the years. Regardless of the events that unfolded in life, they still chose to act on it and their motivation were the friend they'd lost; they refused to lose anyone else.

Wally had a clock ticking away in his head and each turn of the hand was another reason to believe they'd fail. Plans had ruined them but not enough to stop them from fighting yet he couldn't ignore the details of it all. There were aspects to this spontaneous escapade that would need to be addressed before the fact or else it would cost them their lives too.

"When the program finishes downloading, all the ships will go down including the one we're on now, got an escape plan Nightwing?" Wally had moved closer to Dick to put his hand on his friend's shoulder. He rested there briefly before feeling the need to sit down again. The speedster's feet felt like glass, his limps almost like sand paper.

From the entrance, Artemis was locked against the wall, her body stretched across it with her arrow prepared to shoot. She counted the footsteps of the Reach as they came closer. Each time one arrived, she'd let her arrow go and strike them in the arm or leg, knocking them back against the odd colored walls of purple and blue hues.

"Artemis, head down to the escape pods, Wally watch her back, I'll follow shortly." Artemis rolled her eyes, something she hadn't done in so long, it felt good to go back to her antics from when she was just a rookie, it felt good to use her eyes for something else than tears.

"We're not leaving you behind." She and Wally said it simultaneously. They weren't ready to lose anyone else, not tonight, hopefully not for the next few years if they'd be so blessed.

"Alright… Wally clear the path, Artemis has my back." Wally nodded, and reached for Artemis in one quick move, to touch her back, gently as he had done so many times over the years, before speeding off to the exit pod. He didn't like the idea of leaving them behind but he knew that as long as one had the other, they'd fight hard to stay alive just to protect one another.

Wally used his velocity to add impact to his collisions with various guards. He laughed like a kid as he knocked them off their feet, rendering them unconscious. Back in the motherboard room, Artemis was using her bow to strangle the neck of a guard, adding just enough pressure to put him to sleep, a technique she'd modified from her childhood. She could hear Wally's laugh; she had to smirk. More than anything she wanted to kiss because it was the only thing in the world that would take her out of reality, just to let herself go in entirety with the person she loved most would be enough to remove her from the horror she was living. But now wasn't the time for romantic notions, now was the time to stay focused and on edge. Any moment could be her last if she wasn't careful.

She could sense a guard to her left, gun in hand, aimed at Artemis's head, with her hands occupied she knew she couldn't physically move to stop it but she wasn't worried. She knew he had her back.

There was a loud crack when Dick kicked the guard in the head while also plunging his escrima stick in the guard's gut. Artemis jumped up and grabbed the guard's arm, flipping him over onto three guards coming from the entrance. Just as she was able to sense the guard aiming at her, she sensed Dick's movements as well.

"Still got it wonder boy." She said, trying to relive their missions from her first year, it was the magic of the team's synchronization. What made the team was their mental connection that was beyond M'gann's telepathy, they way they could switch it on and off to the point of not needing words; it's how they melded into a family, it's how the team came to mean home.

"We need to go." Dick said. He grabbed Artemis's arm and lead her out of the room, the FOG software was already underway, eating at the wires of the ship and transporting it self through the electrical pulses that connected this ship to all the other ones. One by one they'd fall, and at least in that regard the Reach would be out of power.

It was amazing enough they'd made it this far, most of it was thanks to Artemis who was still able to keep her cover intact long enough to sneak the boys in and if they succeeded, the deaths of those they loved would at least be given some meaning, and in that meaning they hoped to find closure… "hoped" being the operative word.

Dick and Artemis dashed out of the room, following Wally's trail of unconscious soldiers to lead them to the pod. Their muscles were strained to the point of breaking, each feeling their tendons aching from overuse and bruises. The sweat on their brows rolled down past their masks to their chests, past their poundings hearts with Artemis shooting arrows at a guard in her flank and Dick using his escrima sticks to open a door that was closing, having thrown it in between the sliding portion, wedged in the middle. Together they forced it open and continued on their way with a redheaded speedster just ahead. He was smirking at them, waving for them to hurry up.

_We're going to make it, we're going to make it._

"Where do you think you're going?" The voice was like a ghost from a nightmare. Artemis reached for Dick, pulling them against the wall as she readied herself for another battle. Wally was frozen as the realization came they weren't home free.

Black Manta stood before them, unmasked with minions at his side. He looked like Kaldur, it was in the eyes; both full of wisdom and yet they lacked the kindness so distinct in Kaldur's. Each could feel their stomachs drop as they remembered their former leader's expression in times of grave danger. Almost out of instinct they looked for him to lead them out but he was gone.

Artemis shuttered again and turned away from the man's face, flashing back to the beeping of the heart monitor, the choice she made.

_I'm sorry, I'm so sorry._

"Artemis, move!" Wally yelled. He'd already sped to her with his hands on her shoulders. He pulled her over the corner where Dick sat, his face in shock, his heart beating fast. None of them were prepared to fight the father of one of the fallen.

"Artemis, we need to get out." Wally said, his hands traced her frame. Their foreheads touched, both feeling the incoming doom but neither prepared to give in just yet. They looked at Dick who was gripping his sticks tightly as if he wanted to fight but couldn't find the strength to do so.

"I know Wally, I'm getting you out." She said, completely undeterred. They needed her to keep it together, Dick was so fragile and Wally was…

She kissed him and did so as if it were meant to last forever but with all the fervor of a permanent goodbye. Wally sensed this and as much as he wanted to hold her there and never let go, he knew if he didn't act now she'd sacrifice herself to save him, to save them both. He pulled back as tenderly as he could and whispered his last "I love you" in her ear before throwing her into the pod.

Black Manta rushed towards them, his weapon of choice was similar to Kaldur's a sword of sorts with the ability to electrocute its victims and it was aimed at Dick Grayson. Artemis screamed in the background as the pod doors shut closed.

The scream brought Dick back to his senses and he immediately moved to his right, arching his back so that the sword sliced the air above him; he then turned on his heel, using his momentum to increase the impact of the blow as he went in to take Black Manta down. In turn, Wally speeded to his side, pulling Dick back into the next room as Black Manta prepared to strike.

"Wally!" Artemis screamed, she struggled to open the pod, it was locked from the inside, regardless of how hard she pulled and pushed it wouldn't budge. Within seconds, it detached from the ship. The last thing she saw was his facing mouthing out "it'll be okay."

Black Manta and his henchmen followed the boys, each shooting at the walls and open spaces. Dick and Wally had managed to crawl upwards into an open venting system, sneaking inside to hide briefly as they gathered their thoughts. The pod was gone, as was Artemis. Soon, the entire ship would disintegrate.

"We didn't really think this through did we?" Wally said, as he rubbed his lips together, tasting Artemis again to calm his nerves.

"Considering we were suppose to be on the pod that just left I'd say we got a bit distracted with the rush so it's time to get tracted, pronto." Dick said as he pushed his hair back from his face. Once on the pod they were to set off an alarm to signal those on the ship to escape, they'd be forced into the remaining pods which Dick had programmed to a detention center, they'd all be prisoners, now it was the reverse, or at least that's where the plan was heading… or what would count as a plan.

Wally jumped down from the vent to take out several of Black Manta's minions with his body weight alone. The bruises he'd gained in the last 24 hours were thoroughly felt with each blow.

"Idiot!" Black Manta shouted as he reached for his sword, hell bent on slicing Wally into pieces.

"Only his girlfriend is allowed to call him that." Dick shouted as he dropped from the ceiling, kicking Black Manta in the head, and swiping the sword from his fingertips. Together the boys moved down the hall. Dick pulled out the controller with the signal program; he slid across the floor with Wally like two kids sliding to a base in baseball. They laughed in unison as Dick hit the enter button to set off the program. The alarms rang out; there were flashes of red and gold in each hallway with panicked faces rushing out of various rooms. They moved passed them, Wally matching Dick's speed intentionally. Eventually they reached the main entree way, this was their last chance.

Just before they were able move into the hall with the next set of pods, the door shut behind them, every entrance shut tight left and right, and with every door that closed came a heavy sound of metal pressing into the ground as it say finality. From the ceiling above that now emitted a ruby like light to the orange liquid oozing out from the floors, everything about the scene suggested their fate had come to a close.

"You can faze out." Dick said, grabbing Wally by the shoulders, determined to make Wally go, no matter he had to make Wally go.

"Dick, you can't ask me to-"

"You don't have to die, so you're not going to." Dick responded. He didn't want Wally to say it, the old line "if you're going, I'm going" because it would work against him. The nostalgia of their younger days would kill his best friend because he'd insist that they'd either escape together or die together. For Wally there were no other options, for Dick there had to be another way.

Dick had enough of death. He'd watched his parents fall to their deaths; he's heard the sounds of bones snapping from the impact of concrete. He'd grown up with a man bent on fighting it for the sake of the people; he was raised with the inevitability of it and brushed against it with every battle he took. At times he witnessed it, it was enough.

The joy of saving someone was always shadowed with the catalyst of his heroic life. He'd become the orphan who wanted to save the world but he was so much more now. Of all the things he was, he was a brother and would do anything to protect those he cared about from the fate so many he loved had been lost to.

_I will not lose another brother. _

"After everything we've been through, you'd think I'd leave you? Dick… we died once together-"

"Once was enough… she's waiting for you." Dick knew he had to say it, the only person that could make Wally go… was Artemis. She was the last thing he had left to live for. If Wally wouldn't leave for her, the person he loved most in the world, Dick would lose his last chance to save his best friend.

Wally's mouth went dry. There was a lump in his throat, cutting of the air to his lungs and it was made up of all the words Dick had just said. He didn't like how Dick was talking, he didn't like the way Dick took off his mask too look him in the eyes nor the way Dick said "Go" over and over again.

"Dick, you're my brother." Wally said, resting his hand on Dick's shoulder, eyes blurring, hands shaking, lost in what to do next, what to say, "Please, there's always a way."

"I think we've both accepted there's not." Dick Pulled Wally in, hugging him tightly, much like he did with Bruce and his father. As much as Dick saw Wally as a brother, he'd never admitted to him before how much of a father figure Wally had been to him. Not in the pranks or the quips of the little adventures, but the subtle moments when Wally stepped up to be a man, moments like those shaped him into the man Dick was today. Those were all the things he wanted to say but couldn't. All he wanted now was to force Wally out of his life, what was left of it that is.

"Goodbye old friend." Dick whispered as the explosions in the nearby rooms began to sound off, one by one in beat with Wally's steps as he moved away from Dick. Watching his best friend the entire time.

In a way they knew it would end up like this, ever since that training mission there was a haunting shadow that followed them around, whispering the possibilities in their ear that one day the other would watch their friend die.

Wally reached the door, closing his eyes as he vibrated his molecules through the steel, letting out a scream from the excruciating pain softened only by the image of Artemis in his head. He tried to image her sitting on the floor with her books, glasses and messy hair with the smell of noodles. It was the image that epitomized the life they wanted, the beginning of marriage, kids… He could barely hold onto it.

Briefly, his vision caught a glimpse of what was to come next. Dick felt the urged to drop to his knees but for Wally's sake he stood tall like a good soldier, refusing to show weakness lest his friend change his mind. An explosion from Dick's left set off and the light moved through the cracks of the floor and ceiling. The fire soon caught Dick's frame as the young man let the tears fall one last time. His body was engulfed in the flames a moment later. Wally shouted his name.

_Mom, dad... I'm coming home._

…

It was the first time Artemis had removed the charm since wearing it that fateful night in the warehouse, the last time the four of them were altogether. Her heart broke at the thought; worse, it had been even longer since the original six had been all in one room. The very last time was a Christmas party, before Tula's death, when Wally had whispered about getting engaged and M'gann baked sugar cookies. It was the pinnacle of the best that could come with this life, the life of a hero. It was no longer Christmas carols and baked goods, not with so many of them gone. They were laying in the sharp rocks of the water's edge. Dick, Conner and Kaldur were gone. M'gann was missing, presumably in a catatonic state or worse. Several of the freshmen were still hospital beds and her niece Lian, would grow up without a mother.

"How many times am I going to be reminded of my mistakes?" She asked, her hand on Wally's forehead. The boy she loved laid on a hospital bed with a tube inserted in his nose and an IV pushed into his vein. He was burned in 67% of his body, the unscarred places a mess of bruises. It was the worst she'd ever seen him, and the closest to death. But he was alive and that had to be enough for her, enough for her to finish it.

"We've let it go on far too long." She said with a hum in her annunciation, as if trying to lull him awake. It was now, all alone with the person she loved in a cold hospital room, pale green walls and the scent of sterilizer, that she could allow herself to cry. It was her reprieve, her last bit of control over all that had occurred. She could now release to an extent the pain that had accumulated from the unimaginable tragedies.

"The Light…" she paused to think. For over five years this group had been working undercover, slowly and intentionally moving to destroy the world so that their idea of the fittest could rein.

She could admit she was a fighter, a survivor and yet she chose a different side than her parents, a different side than what evolution dictated. She wanted to be a hero for the weak, for those not strong enough to help themselves in hopes they would be someday.

The Light was a terrorist organization that wanted to destroy her ideals of hope and community, this essence of humanity, in favor of a primal need to take what one needs by any means.

Her body was broken, her mind was shattered and yet she still had her spirit.

She needed to make amends; she needed to give meaning to the deaths of those she loved. But it wasn't revenge she wanted; no, she had learned from years of living with her teammates, her new family, that revenge was a poor man's bottle. What she wished for was of a finer taste.

"They'll be brought to justice." She said, her mouth moving over to his cheek, kissing his skin tenderly, "I promise."

_I'll make it right, I'll make it okay._


	6. The End

**This is the FINAL chapter of a fic that was supposed to have ended months ago *sigh***

**This chapter is by far by favorite one, maybe because it meant I was finally done... but hope you enjoy this alternate endings to Young Justice and let me know what you think of it! There's probably grammar mistakes, there always is... but hopefully the plot and writing make up for it.**

**And here we go...**

* * *

Artemis knew that while the Reach's headquarters were gone, there was still the Light's lair. A place she'd heard whispers about on the streets of Gotham and the like. With a motorcycle she'd taken from the cave, and the charm gone, Artemis let her blonde hair flow behind her, just like in the old days with Z. From time to time she'd even race Wally or Dick on country roads until the sunset and the stars rose in the sky; those days would end with a good book discussion with Kal and meal with M'gann, followed by soccer with Conner. Those days were of her youth, the best days she'd had; before meeting the team a good day was no stiches…

Those days were gone.

It barely fazed her when word got out a white Martian's body was found in Bialya, she'd almost expected it. Artemis had heard the news first after breaking a few codes. After stowing away on a couple of planes, she arrived just in time to see them carry her friend away, a black sheet over her body in its original form. The league was at a loss, all the original six dead, or presumably dead, with the exception of Wally who was occupied by Barry and Iris, each hoping he'd beat the odds.

"If any one could, it'd be Wally." It wasn't easy leaving him, but she didn't have a choice with the world on the brink of destruction by a terrorist organization that considered themselves the good guys. There was work to be done. The leaguers couldn't very well help her; she was better dead. While her persona of Tigress was exposed as a betrayer, no one knew who she really was or that under the name Artemis Lian Crock was an empty grave. She was a walking ghost, free to do as she pleased so long as she didn't get caught…

She used this to her advantage, taking up a new costume of black that covered her from head to toe, the material similar to Dick's Nightwing costume. It was his gift to her for her twentieth birthday, although under the circumstances that led shortly after, Tula's death, she never got a chance to wear it. Instead she kept it under wraps, now was the time to use it. As she parked her cycle and drew her knife there was an audible groan from what she was about to do. Grabbing the top of her ponytail, she held the metal against her hair, cutting it along the lining of the hair tie. It was her trademark and now… it was time to let it go. The hair fell to her feet, the loose strands framing her face.

She pulled her hood over her head. From there, she followed a lead after lead, searching for answers, barely sleeping, often collapsing on apartment stoops for catnaps, ten minutes at a time. It wasn't until her third week she was able to find what she needed. The details as to "how" were questionable, perhaps a few pointed guns to some not so innocent faces, but she had to do it, that's what she kept telling herself at least.

For all her gruff and grim, Artemis got what she wanted. A part of her, her conscience most likely, whispered how much of the devil within she was willing to act on and reprimanded her for doing so. The angel sat quietly on her other shoulder murmuring to her conscience and saying hush. From the drug dealers to the kingpins, one by one she took them down, taking names, asking questions and leaving her marking across the cities of Gotham, Metropolis, Star city just to name a few. The woman was on a mission and couldn't be stopped. Word got around that woman in black and raspy voice was out hunting for the Light's members. The smart ones cowered in fear of course they were eventually found and within seconds confessed all they knew. The stupid ones resisted, threatened and fought, in the end they lost too. Lead after lead she eventually came to a name she already knew, Cameron Mahkent.

"You've got five seconds to tell me where they're hiding." Artemis said with her crossbow pointed at his head. The lowlife was living in an apartment outside of New York, supplied by the Light itself as a sleeper agent, or so the crooks on the streets had said. She'd broken in during the night to find him asleep on the couch with the steel of her bow she gave him a rude awakening and now they were face to face.

"Artemis Crock, bad girl turned good toe-shoes turned vigilante!" He was trying to lighten the mood; half of him still believed he could connect with her, if only because of their childhoods and shared experiences. The other half was only acting out of survival, wanting to save his skin. Either way he far more worn on life than Artemis knew. Day after day he slept in his apartment, sometimes unable to eat, to think. Life was a blur in the worst possible way for a kid of a bad guy that never gave him a time of day. Eventually he started to question if he cared anymore or if he was just trying to please his dad. Either way, he was tired.

"Where are they Cameron." She asked again, this time with more venom in her voice, the rasp intensifying to razors like that of Batman himself.

"They'd kill me if I told them, I know you won't." She scowled. If she killed him now, she's turn her back on everything she and her friends fought for, she'd degrade the deaths of the best people she knew, the greatest of their generation. There was no point in even thinking about it; he was right, but only to such a degree.

"Right, I won't kill you." She lowered her weapon to his knee, clicking instantly. The arrow went into his knee; blood gushed through the flesh as he held it down with his hands, moaning in pain.

"Son of bitch!" He yelled pulling his knee closer to his chest. Ironically, it was the first time in a long time that he felt awake.

"But I will shoot every last arrow in every part of your body and when I'm out of those, I'm just break your damn bones. Care to reconsider?"

"You've gotten hard Artemis," he said with a huff, "Almost scary." She moved her crossbow to his other knee, pushing it down into his skin as she glared him in the eye.

"I can shoot before you changed into ice, and even if you make it… I'm willing to spend all night melting you with a blow torch." He swallowed hard, moving his shoulders back to pull himself away from her.

"Artemis, you're signing my death warrant." The blue in his eyes changed from ice to water, as if he were tearing up. She knew him well enough to know it wasn't a ploy, Cameron never could cry on cue. It was the first time she'd realized how much he'd changed. It didn't change all the wrong he had done in the past.

"Better you than millions of innocent people," She sighed, pulling back, "Tell me you don't care about that Cam, millions, including kids, kids just like were once were… with-"

"No one, yeah." He pressed down on his knee again, the arrow still sticking out. The numbness of the blow had begun to wear off and now came the sting.

"I'll tell you, but you should know there's a chance-"

"I won't make it out alive, I know, don't care." Artemis pulled her weapon back, pulling the arrow from Cameron's knee in one motion. He let out another scream briefly but was relieved by the pressure of Artemis's fingers as she pressed a napkin against the flesh wound. If it weren't for the fact that they were on two different sides, mortal enemies in a sense, he'd admire her. Hell, he already did.

"You were always the best of us Artemis." Cameron said slowly, he'd closed his eyes to avoid the sight of blood.

"Us?" Artemis asked as she reached for paper towels on the floor. Cameron's place was a mess, and it was dark, it's as if depression had come to life in room.

"All the kids who grew up to be bad, funny that you'd switch sides… like you knew how it was gonna end all along." Cameron sighed, he wanted to stall, he wanted to say he was sorry, he wanted to fade away but for all that want he didn't want to die, not yet.

"Cameron." Artemis said, determined to get her answer.

"Artemis." Cameron replied, exhausted.

"Where am I going to die?"

…

She taken on another name and with a fake passport, a gift from Cam, she boarded a plane for Japan. She was headed to a trench, Marianas Trench to be exact. Somewhere in the depths below was the Reach army. She knew it was destroyed, Cameron had confirmed that their plan had been successful but the virus had no effect on the Light's original lair, in more or less the same location, thousands of feet under the ocean.

"These are the codes and locations to get in and out Artemis," Cam had said as he handed her the files, most of them he'd stolen from his dad he was one of the few people privy to the Light's plans. Cameron wasn't all that trusted among the ranks of "real" bad guys.

The files were as much as he would do to help her, certainly more than enough but not beyond all he could do. She hated to admit it but she wished he'd volunteer to go with her, just for the sake of not being alone as she had been for months. Her mind went back to Wally. Last she'd heard, he was still in critical condition but Bart was at his side 24/7, she took solace in that; at least he wasn't alone.

From the airport to yet another abandoned warehouse, Artemis was able to use Cam's codes to access a one-man submarine, the warehouse was filled with prototypes owned by Luthor, thankfully for Artemis his security guards had a gambling addiction, allowing her the perfect opportunity to sneak in. Supposedly, the machines were created for Black Manta's army, those she found were the extras saved for later use.

It took her a good hour to move the submarine to the coastal water; she was very aware of the fact there were local authorities out and about, some paid off by Luthor. Either way, she was endanger of being seen, to avoid unwanted attention she'd rigged a bomb to go off near field 10 miles away from her. The bomb making was something Wally had taught her, a last resort type of thing should she ever need it in the future. As soon as it went off, she went to work pushing the small submarine out. Once she succeeded, she buckled herself in and began to follow Cam's detailed instructions on how to operate it.

There was a moment as the submarine dived down where she truly believed she'd been tricked. There was no real cause for alarm, just the black water around her with no light to guide her about, diving deeper into the water. It was terrifying and yet relevant to how she felt inside. While one part of her screamed she'd been fooled, the other said this was the hell she deserved for not saving her friends. She could hear Conner's anger, M'gann's tears, Dick's sigh and Kaldur's silence. She could also feel the touch of Wally's hand on her shoulder; it was enough to keep her calm.

The submarine landed next to a building, a giant ball of sorts with gold glimmering off the ends from the lights within. What worried her now was what Cameron had told her about getting inside. The submarine could only carry her this close, after that she'd have to enter in a passcode inside. Despite his relations with the Light, he'd never been asked to go inside, only given the directions on how to get this far. He wasn't trusted with this information, few were. The question now was how to move from this spot to the next. The submarine could only go so far… lucky for her; Kaldur had left her something to get by.

Just like Kaldur's Black Manta suit, Artemis had been given one to wear if she were to ever need it. It was designed with extra features thanks to Dick and Wally, the three of them worked on it over Chinese food and kung fu movies; the thought made her smile. It was one of the last moments together where they were all getting along, before Wally was consumed with worry for them all, before Dick felt all the guilt, before anyone died.

"Ok guys," she imagined as if her team, her friends were by her side, "…time to see what this thing's made of." She pulled off her hooded jacket and pants, slipping into the pieces of the Manta suit, quite a struggle in the small compartment she was in. It suit felt like ice against her skin, roughly flexible as if it were made of a snake's scales. The image of the reptile filled her with disgust; a snake was a symbol of the devil, something she wanted to stay away from her but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't completely be free of it. She could hear the choir now singing her a lullaby; it was the distant soul of Wally West telling her to press on that helped her relax. He had her, he was "holding."

It was enough to help her go on. The mask clicked on and with that she stepped out from the back of the submarine, pressing the open button, petrified as the water rushed towards her. She panicked momentarily, afraid she'd drown or be crushed by the pressure from being so far deep. When she felt neither sensation, she opened her eyes again. While the sea was dark, the helmet she wore provided the light she needed to find her way to the base, it being 70 or so feet away from where she was.

It was haunting, frightening to swim in the world's deepest trench, thousands of feet below the land and see into a dark abyss as if floating in a vacuum of space. The threat was the same, no air to breathe. The silence was inhuman more than peaceful, as if all the land in the world had collapsed under the waters and sunk to hell leaving only darkness. As she swam closer, she could hear sounds, laughter of two boys on their mischievous missions, a girl with a sugary voice, a piece of thread she began to weave, a silent young man watching patiently, another boy whose heart was mending and Artemis herself. She could hear them giggling, crying, the motions of their daily work as they cleaned the dishes, watched the television set, ran around chasing one another for one stupid reason or another that led to the pile of them on the ground in a fit of laughter. Artemis could hear the echoes of their words; she missed them so much.

The ghosts waved goodbye, nothing more than figments of her imagination, or rather the memories surfacing in the dark. Her arms reached forward to the doors just ahead with the shadows singing to her, all out of tune, just like always.

"Guys, shush." She whispered as her hands touched the doors; her fingers pressed in the last of the codes, and with that the doors opened. She was pulled downward, the water being drained from the room as the doors shut behind her. She shuttered as if she were living a fresh memory but she couldn't quite place it.

Once inside, she stepped across the pavement, listening to the sounds of her shoes click against the ground. There was no one else around, no guards to stop her, no Light to foil her plans prematurely.

"As if I have a plan." She hadn't thought things through, not entirely. She had the explosives Dick had made, the serums Wally created and her trusty arrows all tucked into her suit, a suit that had been charmed by Zatanna to resist magic…

"Z…" She paused to think about her, along with Raquel and the other members of the team. It wasn't as if she didn't care about them, but her team, the original family… she was the last to join it… no matter how many years past, how many members joined, they were the original 6 that started it, or so she liked to believe. If anything it was the boys getting themselves into trouble that really started it all… how poetic was that. A bunch of kids getting themselves into trouble was the origin story of the greatest covert team to hit this side of the solar system, or so she liked to believe. She smiled.

"What are you doing?" She turned swiftly on her feet, hands reaching to her side where the arrows and crossbow laid. It was Ra's A Ghoul, in a green robe, stroking his beard as he stepped closer to her. He made no sound as he moved, but his expression changed from curiosity to amusement.

"Are you what's left?" He asked, his eyes looking in her own despite the fact she still had her helmet on. How could he know?

Rather than answer his question or her own she walked up to him slowly, but confidently. If there was any member to run into now, it was Ra's for she knew he owed someone a debt and while he was a man of corruption and lies, he was a man of his word.

"You killed Jason Todd." The grin on his face twisted into anguish. For all the evil he'd done in the world, he did so with calculation and only when necessary; he was an evolutionist in that regard as were all the members of the Light who wished to weed out the weak. Yet they both knew Jason was not of that variety, he was a warrior, Batman's soldier, he owned Bruce a debt he had yet to pay.

"I don't owe you anything." He said, already preparing a rebuttal for what she had to say next.

"Dick was just as much Bruce's son as Jason was. Dick was my best friend, and he's gone, Bruce isn't here and he will never accept a payment of any kind from you… that means you owe the debt to me." She was thankful the suit covered her body and face lest her nerves give her away. She was taking a gamble.

"Interesting logic, what is it that you ask of me?" He was amused again, curious as to what request she would make. She couldn't very well ask that he turn the other cheek, leave her to her mission as it would destroy everything he'd built. But that was the loophole… a bargain…

"That you give me one shot at you." He let out a snort, but nodded. He was the leader of the League of Shadows. He was sure that despite her training with Batman and others of his caliber, she would be no match for him, especially in her emotional state. It was practically suicide.

Perhaps that's what she wanted.

"Alright, one shot? That's reasonable." He put his hands down at his sides and nodded again, waiting for her to move. She didn't. She only stood in place knowing that no weapon would be useful in stopping him. Dick had taught her that much. To beat Ra's required cunning, wit not so much muscle, and technique. She waited for him to say something; five, ten, fifteen minutes passed before he opened his mouth.

"Is this supposed to be a waiting game?" He began to wonder if this was her play all along, if she was only stalling or if she really did have something in mind. He chose to act now rather than later, moving closer to her until they were inches apart. His hands rested on her shoulders. While he was unable to see her face, he could sense her tensing up.

"What do you have planned girl of the moon?" He listened for her heartbeat; he couldn't make out a sound.

"I don't believe in plans, not anymore." She rose her hand to his shoulder just as he did to her, stepping closer. He laughed, a bitter laugh of experience; he approved of her statement.

"The best plans of men and mice often go awry."

"So I've learned." Before Ra's could reply he was overcome with an urge to sleep, his eyes darting up to catch hers as he realized just where she'd placed her hand, a pressure point, a pressure point she'd stuck a needle into. The needle had come in a set, one that belonged to her sister, and it had been gifted to her by Ra's himself as a way of putting down assassins in emergencies.

"Well played." He said before collapsing onto the ground. She had an hour now, that is if she didn't run into any other mishaps.

"Gotta work fast."

….

She entered the main room easy enough; all guards stationed around the headquarters seemed to believe her façade. There was no questioning, no double glances; they all went about their business as usual. She slipped in between them, weaving in and out as the crowd of minions grew, heading in all directions. The further she went into the lair, the more of them she saw, the closer she knew she was to the group she was looking for.

Artemis had placed explosives in the pillars in the halls, a few in vents. It was just as she was taught in training, where to hit buildings, all the weak spots just like pressure points. A chill went up her spine; she felt like an assassin more than ever, hence why she felt the need to talk herself down lest she have a panic attack in the middle of her enemy's headquarters.

The main room was clearly labeled; it was the one with golden doors, very grandeur. She stopped in front of the doors, pausing to see how the other guards reacted to her movement. She knew if she tried to open the doors, they'd attack her, no one else had gone in without being ordered to, at least from what she saw in the short time she was here.

She opened a pocket on her left thigh, inside were the serums Wally had made for her. With her body pressed against the wall, she let herself slip onto the ground, as if she'd been shot, hissing in pain as if the wound stung. She'd removed her gloves and held them to her fake wound. The other guards took notice quickly and rushed over, barking orders to see who the intruder was. Several came to see if she was dead or alive. As they bent down to look at her, she shook her hands and pretended to seize. They bent down to get a better look at her, one even suggested removing her helmet to see if she was foaming. As soon as they were close enough, she reached her hands out to them, the serums hidden under bandages wrapped around her hands. One by one, she pressed down on each of their bodies, the needles laced in Conner's DNA to break through their metal, one by one they were injected. One by one they fell. Eventually she cleared the hall.

She rose from the ground and pushed the bodies aside, taking in a deep breath, her hands grabbed the door handles with flashes of the fallen across her eyelids as she squeezed them closed. A moment later she was standing face to face the members of the Light, all staring up at her with a smile.

"Well done Artemis Crock, well done." Savage said, his hands clapping slowly, his eyes sinister…

_They knew I was coming all along…._

…

"Quite the plot twist, wouldn't you agree?" Queen Bee said, a smirk on her face as she recalled just how they were able to find her, "It was no easy task." Lex countered, beaming at the work.

"Wasn't easy little girl, you're tough one to track." Her worst nightmare was slowly being pieced together. Her father was in her midst, with his mask off no less as he grinned at her openly. A sickness crept into her stomach and throat, nausea on her tongue.

_They planned this all._

"One by one, like dominos lined up, we knocked you down Artemis. Seemed only fair since you tricked us once." Suddenly a screen flickered on, it shone above her head at first and then lowered until it was in front of her. It showed her fake funeral, the flowers her mother laid on her grave, it was painful to watch but worse was what came next.

Jade sneaking closer to visit her gravestone at night, only to be attacked by a league of shadows… and injected with a liquid.

She had been drugged and it had made her reckless, it had lead to her own demise.

Artemis closed her eyes, stepping back to pull her arms over her face. She couldn't breathe; she knew what would come next. It was their plan from the beginning to take them out, divide and conquer. Surely it wasn't their original plan, not until Kaldur was lobotomized, but that's what inspired it. They knew together they were at their strongest, but separated…

"Don't look away now," Savage was behind her. He pulled her wrists and twisted them behind her back. She let out a cry of pain, barely able to stand; soon she was on her knees with Savage pulling her hair up, forcing her to watch.

She could see them plotting, Lex volunteering to take Conner, Queen Bee claiming M'gann. She could see Lex handing the boomtube to Black Beetle, and how easily Conner fell into the plan.

"He was a hero!" Artemis screamed, unable to stand the thought that Conner was a pawn, not when he died so valiantly. She shook her head; her fingers cringed, her back arching forward as if she were to crawl to her death. The horror didn't stop; with Savage's hand pulling her chin up she was forced to watch M'gann die, with Queen Bee in the background, applauding her efforts.

"She reached out to all of you when she died, I was able to get a lock on you in particular, you were the last face she saw Artemis." Queen Bee was on her feet, her heels clacking against the tiled floor. She stopped in front of her, smiling as she whispered, "Your two had such a strong bond."

Queen Bee and all the rest of these disgusting beings mutilated, twisted, warped, abused her friendships. They took what she cared most and…

Wally…

"You were all suppose to die you know, you first." Klarion hissed, annoyed at the thought that he didn't get his way in the first place; his way being Artemis's death sooner than later.

"Jade was suppose to kill me, I get it." Artemis spat the words, furious, frustrated, ready to obliterate everything breathing in this room.

"Yes, and then you escaped death again, on the ship. You were supposed to die with Nightwing, along with your beau, sadly you both made it out." Queen Bee said, still smiling as if she had something that would upset Artemis even more.

"We've been monitoring that hospital though." Lex replied, clapping his hands as he reached for the remote to change the screen to a live view of Wally lying in his hospital bed. Artemis jumped upwards, nearly flipping Queen Bee as she reached for the woman's body, snapping her arm in half with one motion.

"IF YOU TOUCH HIM-" Her scream was cut short by Savage's hand on her back, hitting her spine in one blow. She fell to the floor, shaking from the pain. All she could think of was Wally, how he needed her. She suddenly found herself shouting to all the deities she knew to protect him, struggling to pull herself back on to her knees to make her prayers honest.

_What can I do?_

"You're not going to win, you won't." She struggled to move; Savage had a hard grip on her hair, the other hand on her torso. Queen Bee was in a rage, tempered only by Savage's hold on Artemis.

"I hope he kills her slowly." Queen Bee said, holding her broken arm with her other hand. She limped back to her seat. Klarion giggled.

"Oh she's a feisty one." He said.

"Now just wait for the finale, little girl of the moon." Savage said, throwing Artemis across the floor. She slid briefly before coming to a halt halfway to the door. The strands of her hair sticking to her forehead as the sweat from fear, worry and fatigue rolled down her cheeks. Pawns in a chess game, that's what they amounted to, pieces to be toyed be a cruel fate; she cursed Nabu, she cried out praying for a miracle, praying a leaguer would find her but she knew it was a futile prayer. Her knuckles tightened, her skin turned white, the blood rushed to her heart as it sped faster. They were waiting for her to move, to try for the sake of trying so they could crush her spirit before killing her. They wanted theatrics.

"I won't bow." She said, rising onto her feet, putting her arms under her chest; she breathed slowly again.

"I won't break." She said, as her eyes rose up to face them all for one last hurrah.

"Perhaps you'll change your mind when you see your executioner?" Savage said with his arms crossed behind his back. He seemed so sure of her fate.

Artemis could hear someone's steps to her left, cold, cold, as everything in life had become. For some odd reason she swore she smelled the dead, she knew that scent well enough, from her childhood, from her hero days. But now… there was something else in the aura of death, a bond.

She lifted her head up, horrified once again by what she saw.

"Kaldur."

….

He didn't answer her, he couldn't. There was no soul inside, only a vessel just as sure as they were on the ship, he had become the machine. It was the first part of the Light's plan. She should have known then they had begun to plan, with Kaldur's face, Kaldur's abilities in their hands they could use it to any advantage…

"Kaldur!" She screamed. She searched the room for Black Manta; she hoped he could stop the madness, stop this terrorist organization from using his son as their property, that as a father he would object. She spotted him in the corner, silent.

"Kaldur, attack." Savage said, and Kaldur did. The tattoos in his arms shifted to bonds of water energy, forming swords sharp enough to slice her through. She stepped back, running towards the wall with Kaldur following suit. Just as she had done a million times, she used her speed and momentum to lift her against the wall, just as Wally taught her, and jumped over Kaldur, putting her hands on his back to push him down. As she landed, she heard him fall. He let out an inhuman grunt. She slid back across the floor and twisted her body back as he quickly rose to strike again. She used her foot to kick him back, her other hand pulling out arrows and her crossbow.

"Poetic Justice." Savage said.

"And the façade becomes a reality." Lex added.

"Good riddens." Klarion hissed, stroking the fur of his cat. Not one member of the Light was interested in watching the fight continue. The only part they wished to see was Artemis's death, but for real this time.

"Kaldur," She pleaded with him and they continue to spar across the tiles. Klarion cheered, hiss and booed. The others grinned and sighed depending on who was hit Artemis was weakened by her earlier fights with her sister, the ship battles and now to fight one of her closest friends, or rather the face of one, she was losing her grip.

She knew in the cave they'd been divided in wins and losses whenever they were pitted against one another. But Kaldur was always calm and collective, she always questioned if he had potential for more. Now with the soul gone, she was afraid the beast inside would come out to slaughter her into pieces.

A punch, a kick, she boxed her way and dodged his weapons while he used his swords like slicers, quickly moving them up and down, side to side in the air trying to match her steps and assaults. It went on for ten minutes before Artemis slipped on her own sweat that had accumulated under her.

"Finally!" Klarion shouted, "finish it." The word triggered something inside her, "finish" finish as in to end, just what she came to do. Kaldur pulled his swords down onto her body; with her crossbow she pushed them back. They were locked, staring into one another's eyes with Artemis's worn and Kaldur's colorless. This was a stalling game, she'd forgotten all about it. The explosives where set, the Light didn't know, how could they? It would imply she'd come to kill them all, and that was never in hero's description to kill, it was the one taboo a hero was forbidden to cross. Ironic that in Cameron's apartment she couldn't bring herself to kill him because of this, but now she's swapped sides without realizing it. But it was just, it was fair, because the law was only just when it protected the innocent, if it couldn't it was the job of those able to break it and accomplish the goal, to protect those in need of protection.

Artemis swallowed hard, she sounded so objective, so far away from human. She wanted to remember what it felt like to be happy.

"M'gann made the best cakes." Artemis said. She closed her eyes as she recalled her first birthday party in the cave, "And Conner tried so hard to put the piñata together, he was covered in confetti." She let out a muffled laugh, tears falling from her eyes and onto her golden hair.

"And Dick," She whispered the name, pulling Kaldur closer to her body, "he kept wanting to hack the screens to say 'Happy Birthday Arty' but Bruce wouldn't let him… he did it anyway." Kaldur watched her lips move, not registering a word she said and yet mesmerized but her voice, as if he'd heard it before or so it looked from the expression on his face.

"And Wally kept licking the frosting so I hit him in the back of the head and he grabbed my hair and pulled me back into a kiss. You approved, you always did like us together." She cried harder, pushing down on the crossbow further into her own chest. Waiting for the sound to go off.

"You always watched out for all of us Kaldur, we wouldn't be who we are today without… whom we were." She stopped speaking; her mind trying to sort out the tenses, they were gone. He was gone, all but Wally who she could only hope would survive this, more than anything she needed it, more than Kaldur magically coming too and fighting with her just like old times instead of trying to end her life.

"We were kids." She said, "We were kids!" she screamed the sentence out for the Light to hear. They had to have known what they were doing; taking children and breaking them ruthlessly just to prove their efforts were futile, that there were no happy endings.

In that moment she could see everything, she could see Wally being smothered by Amazo, her arrow flying through the air, Ollie and Bruce at her apartment, meeting the team, shaking Wally's hand, M'gann calling her a sister, her mother crying, TV dinners, celebrity hockey, food fights, scarves sewn by M'gann, pranks with Dick, kissing Wally for the first time on new years, reading novels with Kaldur, sparring with Conner, nestling with the whole team near the fire listening to old Christmas carols and drinking hot coca, dates, milkshakes, heartbreaks, dances, graduations, tears, hugs, goodbyes and hellos again.

Her body was numb by the time the explosives were set off. She heard the screams from the Light's members, all taken aback, surprised for the third time, by Artemis Crock, the girl who they just couldn't seem to kill, the woman who'd shocked them all.

"You had to be stopped." She mouthed out, but in her mind the voice was a little girl holding onto a teddy bear wishing her mother would come home. She could see all her friends again; she could hear their cries, their deaths. She reached for them in their darkest moments and fell to her knees to hold them, she lived by their side in their happiest memories, her ears began to bleed. The bombs went off behind them, blowing Kaldur back. She watched him fall halfway through the floorboards. Instinctually, she reached for him, trying to catch his hand. They'd done it a million times, saved each other and the rest of the team again and again.

_But not today. _

Today he looked up at her, void of feeling. Her heart broke one last time as she kissed his forehead and let him go. He disappeared in the fog below them. As the building moved, her body slid down against the wall as the entire building shifted weight, tipping further into the trench.

"Because you can't have them anymore, you can't have our hearts, anymore." It was all she could think to say, or rather force her mouth to say. Inside her mind was a million tangents crossing over one another in blurs. She saw the face of her niece as she fell, that was a heart she wanted to keep sacred, safe. There were so many young hearts she wanted untouched, not like hers, the team, her family.

_We were heroes._

Her mind went to Wally again, how she'd give anything to see him once more if only to kiss him goodbye forever. She didn't care how clichéd it was, it was like Wally always said, things were clichéd for a reason, because they were true. She missed him more than ever; she wanted him holding her hand. There was black smoke everywhere; various members of the Light were knocked unconscious, including Klarion. He was the one she worried about most, what with his powers he could help them escape. Now they were all doomed, and it was their own fault. They could have known what Artemis had down if they'd only left the theatrics alone and killed the team sooner, but they played with their lives instead, they wanted a big last number, and because of this, they'd all be paying for it with their lives.

As the black smoke filled the room and pieces of steel shot out from the doors, the floor and the ceiling, the debris ripped her into pieces bit my bit. She mouthed out a goodbye to each friend she'd lost, and for the lover she could never have a future with.

"I did it for you guys, I did it for family."

The most dangerous terrorist organization on Earth had finally reached it's end with the headquarters slipping into a downward spiral, hitting rocks along the way with water rushing inside, drowning all who where inside, suffocating their lungs and swelling their cells.

Down it went, like a toy tumbling down a hill until it was gone from sight and from mind. It was over.

_For my family, for the heroes, goodbye._

…

In the hospital bed of Central city lay a speedster with hair as red as fire and eyes as green as a field of grass in the Summer. His fists were clenched, his body burned; inside and out he was in pain, struggling to survive. For all the days and nights he lay in that bed those who sat near him could hear the quiet murmurs of the boy, whispers of forgiveness, feelings of guilt and what some would say were lips moving to scream the name "Artemis" over and over again.

At his side every day was Bart Allen, watching the clock. From the moment he arrived, timing was everything; one second was the difference between life and death. Now he sat alone in the same room with Wally West, his hero who was fighting to live. This wasn't supposed to happen, nothing had happened as it should have… the timeline was so skewed from what it was meant to be. Ironically the future wasn't one he looked forward to anyway, but the present was just as horrible.

"Everywhere I go…" He paused as the beeping slowed until the spikes on the hospital monitor stopped and there was only the sound of a flat line. Wally whispered her name once more before he passed. Not one other sound was made but the gasp of Bart Allen who faded from the timeline. The future had been saved, and he couldn't even say thank you to the team who had saved it and billions of lives.

Before his last heartbeat, Wally though of his team, his family, his friends, the love of his life, and he'd done in the short time had lived.

_We are heroes, we save people; it's what we do._

* * *

**Let me know your thoughts...**


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